Over thinking

[farmyard3]

I have a massive problem with overthinking and wondering if anyone is in the same boat. I also have anxiety and on meds for it so guessing the two are linked.

A large majority of the things I overthink do not matter, or won't matter in a week or so. Normally it's small negative things that have happened, that anyone else would not have a second thought about.
I can't seem to forget things like this - the thoughts go round in my head for months at a time and I struggle to get rid of them, even when I am busy. Recently it has been making me feel sick and more anxious than normal.

I really frustrate myself because I know the worries are just not worth worrying about!

Has anyone had experience of this? Any idea of what might help? I'm getting desperate and don't want to go to the GP in case they dismiss it etc.

Bump

Yes. I have a form of OCD often coined as "pure O"

I was diagnosed with anxiety and treated as such for it however it actually made it much worse. Iv learned that by "reassuring" my thoughts it simply makes my obsessional and intrusive thoughts more validated and they dig in deeper. Treating it with exposure rather than reassurance is what helps me overcome them

When I did CBT I discovered this is called 'rumination'. Going over things endlessly, round and round in circles, getting nowhere fast, often at 3 in the morning!

A brilliant tip they gave was to simply say to yourself, 'Stop ruminating,' when you recognise yourself doing it. It sounded so unlikely to work but I found it did! It even made me chuckle too.

My best tip is to write things down to get them out of your thoughts and on to paper. This really saved me. I just had a bullet pointed list with a few smaller points under each thing. Organising my thoughts on to paper really helped me to stop going over and over them.

Also, take my mind off all that stuff, I tried to 'distract' myself with other things. I used to play the A-Z game: think of a subject eg countries, flowers or football teams and think of an example for each letter of the alphabet. When I did that at night I usually fell asleep by N!!

Thank you so much for the advice. It doesn't often happen to me at night time, it can happen even if I'm really busy. I often just have to wait for the thought to gradually go away. Sometimes it only takes 24 hours! I will look up rumination, I have never heard of that before.

I am going to start writing lists of reasons why I don't need to worry so that I can read them to myself, it may sound silly but I think it might be more effective than just thinking of them. If it's there in front of me it's more believable.